| Session Title: Identifying, Articulating and Incorporating Values in a Program Theory |
| Demonstration Session 301 to be held in Avalon A on Thursday, Nov 3, 11:40 AM to 12:25 PM |
| Sponsored by the Program Theory and Theory-driven Evaluation TIG |
| Presenter(s): |
| Sue Funnell, Performance Improvement, funn@bigpond.com |
| Abstract: Increasingly program evaluations are being driven by program theories but program theories can be constructive or unhelpful or even destructive for evaluation. The processes used to conceptualize and portray a program theory can influence whether it gives rise to useful evaluation questions and can affect whose voices are heard when identifying evaluation criteria and making judgments about a program's success and its wider effects. This session will show how workshops can be used alongside other techniques to develop a program theory that incorporates a range of value perspectives and poses useful evaluation questions. It will demonstrate questions that can be used, how to arrange the answers into an outcomes chain, the Ideas Writing technique for identifying different perspectives on what constitutes success, how to deal with divergent views and how to incorporate unintended outcomes. |